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Apple Removes Tool to Check if an iPhone or iPad is Activation Locked
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The threads would be a lot shorter if MacRumors finally implemented a modern commenting system for the news articles and not a forum.
Tim Cook is on a role. Between changing the font on apple.com and now this, 2017 is the greatest year ever for Apple!
Now Tim just needs to release some new watch bands. The icing on the cake if you will!
Now Tim just needs to release some new watch bands. The icing on the cake if you will!
Now that I think about it Apple can use time off from you as well.
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I hope you are just being snide. Aside from the knee-jerk reaction of so many on here... you and others seem to not understand that a robust market for used iPhone's actually helps Apple, not hurt. So many of us sell our phones and buy a new model every year. If we couldn't sell our current model, far fewer people would buy the new model as often. They they either wouldn't have enough money, or they would not want to let a fairly new model go to waste.
It makes sense why they pulled it. If it is being used by people redoing iCloud locked iOS devices with different serials. Its a bummer because its a needed tool to purchasing used devices. Im guessing the work around would be to call apple and see if they would verify.
Can you imagine the support/warranty nightmare that causes by people using or switching serials.
Can you imagine the support/warranty nightmare that causes by people using or switching serials.
And yet Apple continues to deny that there is a flaw with the activation lock.
MacRumors reported months ago that people were receiving devices that were mysteriously activation locked. Yet Apple said absolutely nothing.
I had this happen with a used iPhone 6 plus I bought off of Swappa. Fortunately the seller had the original receipt they could send me. I had to take the original receipt to an Apple store to get them to unlock it. However it took me a week to get it done.
I'm lucky in that I work six blocks from an Apple store. What does somebody do when the nearest Apple store is hours away?
Shame on Apple for not admitting there is a problem.
If I'm selling a device, then I would only let a buyer connect and activate it with cash in my hand.
My best guess is that the tool was being exploited. I recently had a phone that I was waiting to sell added to an unknown iCloud and I had to contact Apple Support with my proof of purchase to get to removed. I bet it's not hard to brute force scrape serial numbers and then add those SNs to an iCloud account through activation request forging. I'm sure they're just patching it up and making sure this doesn't happen again.
A Chinese company released a video to show how to remove a chip and reprogram it to remove the activation lock. They used this site to check to see if another number was valid and not also locked.
It's a complex problem. Something like this takes time. Apple will aknowledge it eventually.
My new Echo Dot would not connect to my Wi-Fi, and the customer service person told me that it probably had been reported as lost or stolen … even though it was brand new. Evidently quite a few people had the same experience.
Unfortunately, I too first thought the same when I read this article. Sad that this is the first thing now you think about when apple does something...."How can I (Tim-Apple) make more money....
I read these type of posts and the Goth kids from South Park is the voice I hear
Not to change the subject but they need to send that iPhone of Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen to theses Chinese guys to recover the data. They would probably able to download the content of the chips and then later decrypt it.
http://ediscovery.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/?p=694
http://ediscovery.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/?p=694
Your post history is extraordinarily negative, it may be worth your time to reassess whether you and Apple are a good match. On this occasion I would like to point out that in your haste to spread yet more negativity you jumped the gun. The serial check was being used to bypass Activation Lock.
So what's the next move then I wonder? Change the boot routine and encrypt that part of storage in order to prevent clear write access to it? It's either that or a ROM. It would suck if they scrapped the lookup permanently, but that would be the easiest way out.
There is a lot of misinformation being spread here as usual. The method shown in the video only works on iPad WiFi & iPad Mini WiFi versions if you've watched the video. If the video is from June 2016, why wouldn't Apple have closed the tool back then? Nothing in the video proves this is the reason the site was taken down. The video doesn't even address the concern that the new SN may be iCloud locked and how to check. They could be updating the tool for security or convenience, maybe even a pending lawsuit.
You can remove the resistor r1506 in the iPad Cellular + WiFi versions, which will disable cellular function, but this only works through the Mini 3 and first iPad Air. The iPad Air 2 loses WiFi & bluetooth function too unless it can be jailbroken(iOS 8/9 only). Also, you won't be able to update any version once this is done.
http://pasha4ur.org.ua/articles/difdevices/131-how-unlock-apple-ipad-2-3g-icloud-locked/7
You can still use a number of free IMEI/SN GSX checks to verify iCloud although this still hurts the general public buying these devices that doesn't know of these sites. The rule is if you can't access the home screen and make a phone call, don't buy it. You should also check settings/iCloud to make sure no iCloud is present although I bought a phone on iOS 10 with a hidden iCloud a month ago. I went to reset the guy's info a couple weeks back from settings/general/reset/erase all and was aghast to find an iCloud lock screen upon setting up again. He even had his gmail on the device, so I could have reset it by email had I known. He's not answering my emails now, but I'm certain he was the owner because I sold it to him before he had buyer's remorse.
I can just get a receipt made up, but it could take multiple calls to Apple iCloud support to find someone who can verify the receipt. They treat the iCloud activation lock like it's the nuclear launch codes. If I can prove I'm the owner of the phone, the iCloud should be removed. I'm surprised Apple hasn't been sued over this yet in cases where customers have returned their phones with activation locks still in place. Apple should automatically remove iClouds from devices that haven't been connected for 30 days and haven't been put into lost mode or simply inform users that upon restoring their devices in iTunes, they will need to reenter their iCloud AppleID and password before the device can be used again. Most people who use findmyiphone probably don't even know the purpose. The major benefit is stolen devices have been reduced by as much as half. A combination of Apple educating users about benefits and how to locate and delete iCloud could help reduce the number of locked 2nd-hand devices.
You can remove the resistor r1506 in the iPad Cellular + WiFi versions, which will disable cellular function, but this only works through the Mini 3 and first iPad Air. The iPad Air 2 loses WiFi & bluetooth function too unless it can be jailbroken(iOS 8/9 only). Also, you won't be able to update any version once this is done.
http://pasha4ur.org.ua/articles/difdevices/131-how-unlock-apple-ipad-2-3g-icloud-locked/7
You can still use a number of free IMEI/SN GSX checks to verify iCloud although this still hurts the general public buying these devices that doesn't know of these sites. The rule is if you can't access the home screen and make a phone call, don't buy it. You should also check settings/iCloud to make sure no iCloud is present although I bought a phone on iOS 10 with a hidden iCloud a month ago. I went to reset the guy's info a couple weeks back from settings/general/reset/erase all and was aghast to find an iCloud lock screen upon setting up again. He even had his gmail on the device, so I could have reset it by email had I known. He's not answering my emails now, but I'm certain he was the owner because I sold it to him before he had buyer's remorse.
I can just get a receipt made up, but it could take multiple calls to Apple iCloud support to find someone who can verify the receipt. They treat the iCloud activation lock like it's the nuclear launch codes. If I can prove I'm the owner of the phone, the iCloud should be removed. I'm surprised Apple hasn't been sued over this yet in cases where customers have returned their phones with activation locks still in place. Apple should automatically remove iClouds from devices that haven't been connected for 30 days and haven't been put into lost mode or simply inform users that upon restoring their devices in iTunes, they will need to reenter their iCloud AppleID and password before the device can be used again. Most people who use findmyiphone probably don't even know the purpose. The major benefit is stolen devices have been reduced by as much as half. A combination of Apple educating users about benefits and how to locate and delete iCloud could help reduce the number of locked 2nd-hand devices.
You, and those like you, are worthy of ridicule, and this community is set back by your presence in it. You contribute nothing, except spewing the same loud-mouthed talking points and the same old, tired strawman arguments as you take awkward, clumsy, impotent swings in the air, throwing your tantrum at Apple, Cook, Trump, or whoever mildly annoys you today.
Please do all of us a favor and have the discipline to read a couple pages of a thread before you assume you're just smarter than everyone else and waste our time by blasting out whatever special, off-topic thoughts happen to enter your head.
Had you done so, you would have realized that a perfectly good explanation for the Activation Lock tool's removal has already been posted and is being discussed by those of us who are actually here to learn something.
What's it like living in a house made of glass?
Because it appears this only really gained traction in October 2016 after brand new phones were showing up locked. It's reasonable to expect that it would take some time for an investigation to take place.
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/05/iphone-activation-lock-wrong-apple-id-issues/
Yes it does. 5m 20s.
I wasn't aware third party IMEI checks could show an iCloud lock. Can you please advise how this works?
I have to consider whether to trust the advice of somebody that engages in fraudulent activity to bypass security protocols designed to protect the average user.
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Apple is worthy of being blasted for the majority of what they've been doing these last couple of years. And that's coming from me, a HUGE Apple fanboy. Those of us who care about Apple SHOULD call them out for the dumb things that they do. We want the company to be great like it used to be!
Problems with Tim Cook's Apple
1. Soldered RAM. 'Nuff said.
2. Pushing thinness over usability.
3. New MacBook Pro's horrible battery, slow GPU, graphics glitches, lack of SD slot.
4. iPhone donglegate. USB-C would have made the iPhone 7 amazing, but no, Apple just had to screw everyone over.
5. Trashcan Mac Pro--Horrible unupgradeable design!
7. No new Mac Pro in FOUR YEARS. FOUR YEARS!!!! I'm still waiting for it!
8. Ditching NVIDIA for shizzy AMD.
9. Removing the extremely-accurate "time remaining" battery indicator from macOS, to hide the fact that the MacBook Pro's battery sucks.
10. Leaving the Display business (discontinuing Thunderbolt Display).
11. Ditching AirPort.
12. AirPods extremely overpriced to the point where customers KNOW they're being taken advantage of.
13. TV app removing the ability to play ripped DVDs
14. STILL no AMOLED in iPhones
15. Apple TV limited to 1080p.... THIS IS 2017!
16. El Capitan and Sierra doesn't properly do ExFat formatting anymore. Disk Utility restricts it to macOS only!
At some point, you just gotta stop defending Apple for the all the stupid things that they've been doing lately. There are probably many more that I'm just not thinking of!